Emmanuel Macron and the new President of the Italian Council, Giorgia Meloni, met on Sunday, October 23, in Rome, a few hours after the entry into office of the most right-wing government in Italy since 1946. This meeting took place in the center of the Italian capital, on the sidelines of the Sant’Egidio conference in which the French president took part and not in an official palace, had declared a French source to Agence France-Presse (AFP) before the meeting .
Mr. Macron has promised to work with Mr.me melon with “dialogue and ambition”in a message he posted on Twitter, accompanied by a photo of the two leaders. Shortly before, the French president had thanked outgoing Prime Minister Mario Draghi. “Grazie Mario”he also wrote on Twitter with a photo alongside the former director of the ECB.
As Europeans, in neighboring countries, as friendly peoples, with Italy we must continue all the work started. Success… https://t.co/LlMf8KHxQC
The French head of state, who did not congratulate Mme Meloni since the formalization of his appointment on Saturday, unlike the German Chancellor, the American President and the representatives of the European institutions, is therefore the first foreign leader to meet the new head of the Italian government. Paris had, however, been very cautious about the possibility and even the advisability of such a tete-a-tete, the official reason for Mr. Macron’s visit to Rome being a speech on peace delivered on Sunday and an audience with Pope Francis scheduled for Monday morning.
Macron “completely ready to work with” Meloni
The Italian political context, with the coming to power of the leader of the post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia at the head of a coalition dominated by the extreme right, prevailed over these considerations. During his previous papal audiences, in 2018 and 2021, President Macron had in fact each time had more or less formal talks with Italian leaders. Franco-Italian relations, in good shape as long as Mario Draghi ruled the Peninsula, risk crossing a zone of turbulence with the eurosceptic and sovereignist Mme Meloni.
A taste of these tensions took place even before his appointment, when the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Laurence Boone, warned in early October that France would be “very vigilant about respecting the values and rules of the rule of law” in Italy. “Unacceptable threat of interference”immediately protested the one who has since become the first woman to hold the post of head of government in her country.
Emmanuel Macron tried to calm things down on Friday by ensuring that he was “very ready to work with her”. Giorgia Meloni, for her part, gave pledges to her European partners by hammering home her attachment to NATO and her determination to support Ukraine, while appointing personalities they may deem reassuring to key positions in foreign affairs and the economy.